Devices for supporting a person's body by the torso are useful in many circumstances. Infants often require support to maintain a seating position because they have not yet developed the requisite strength and motor skills to maintain an upright position unassisted. In addition, older children and adults with various physical handicaps require assistance to maintain an upright position for short or extended periods of time, especially where the person must be left unattended. Bathing is one activity in which maintaining an upright position is extremely important, and even temporary loss of support must be avoided.
A number of devices have long been available to support a person's body. Many of these devices such as canes and walkers require certain coordination and strength on the part of the user. Of those devices which do not require assistance from the user, existing devices generally include a backrest and support frame for holding the person in an upright seated position.
Examples of such devices are found in the following patents:
______________________________________ First-Named Issue U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Year ______________________________________ 1,858,103 Menon 1932 2,229,411 Hughes 1941 2,673,595 Kump 1954 3,656,804 Nielsen 1972 ______________________________________
A number of body support devices are adapted for use by infants. One example is the Model No. 704 bath support, manufactured by the Columbia Company. However, when the infant grows, the apparatus becomes too small for his needs, despite the fact that the older child may still require support in certain circumstances, for example, when taking a bath. Moreover, children with significant physical handicaps may require support most of the time even as they grow to adulthood. Previous devices such as the Columbia Model No. 704 device do not adjust to accommodate persons having different size torsos. Thus it would be desirable to provide a body support apparatus which can be adjusted to snugly fit and support persons of different sizes with different size torsos. This would permit a single body support apparatus to be used by a person as that person grows. In addition, such an adjustable body support apparatus would permit a single device to be used on different persons of different sizes.
An additional disadvantage with existing body support devices is that they are generally quite rigid and only hold the torso in a single body position. Thus it would be desirable to provide a single body support apparatus which has a torso support with some flexibility to move a little and thereby more comfortably accommodate persons sitting therein as such persons attempt to lean or stretch in one direction or another.
In view of the foregoing, it is a principal object of this invention to provide body support apparatus which is adjustable to the extent that persons of a fairly wide range of sizes may use the same device. It is another object of this invention to provide a device which is easily adjustable without requiring the use of tools. It is a further object of this invention to provide an adjustable body support apparatus which is relatively inexpensive, compact, light and easily portable to facilitate multi-location usage. It is yet another object of this invention to provide a body support apparatus which can comfortably and snugly accommodate persons of different sizes as such persons lean, stretch or move their torso while seated in the apparatus.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an adjustable seating apparatus providing full torso support that is waterproof and made of water resistant materials so that it is rugged and may be used in a variety of settings, e.g., a bathtub, a sandbox, on the lawn, etc.